I'm heading to a conference I wasn't sure I'd ever go to again [1]. And, I have mixed feelings [2]. It's not a scicomm conference and never has been. But, through concerted effort over the past decade, we've boosted the programming from zero-ish scicomm sessions to so many people have basically stopped trying to even count them. So, at least in my experience, ESA is a kinda-sorta-scicomm conference.
But, since I'm going, I wanted to reach out to y'all, in case any of you will be there. I'll be co-leading a full-day workshop on research mentoring (inclusive, effective, proactive approaches) this Sunday. And Monday I'll be on a panel about scicomm. If you've followed the Academic ZEST blog for even five minutes, you'll know these activities are my jam! (I'll also be at the awards ceremonies on Monday to get my Early Career Fellow award!)
I hope to see you there if you'll be in Long Beach over the weekend or Monday! Please reach out - it would be wonderful to connect!
Tuesday, though, I'm heading back to Wyoming and my concerted effort of spending the summer affirming that the work I do -- actually, the work I've already done -- is enough.
Regular "programming" here will resume next week with another thought or two about storytelling in scicomm! And I'll be back "live" at the end of the month!
NOTES
[1] I haven't attended ESA for several years, after being deeply involved in leadership roles there for almost a decade. Why? Because I don't have funding to go and I'm done/not currently able to pay out of pocket. It costs thousands of dollars to attend this conference, when you add up lodging, meals, travel costs and registration (minimum of $530/non-student member). There is zero chance I'm the only person so affected, and I occupy an incredibly privileged spot in the milieu of folks effectively priced out of being active members (and thus being able to actively network by attending the annual conference).
[2] As I've mentioned already few times this spring/summer, I'm pretty conflicted about going to the ESA annual meeting (aka conference) to accept a major award I received from the society this spring. I should be conflicted about the flying, and the household duties my partner will handle solo while I'm gone. Or the fact that this trip delays when my parents can come visit. Or even being gone from Laramie at the ultimate time of year. (Our summer window of goodness is short and squeezed shorter by an early mosquito season and the now-upon-us fire season.) But, as I've covered in detail, none of those are what has me feeling so ambivalent. I'm also conflicted about it because almost everyone that was involved with launching the C&E Section has stopped going to the conference or stopped being active in ESA or even stopped being an ecologist altogether. Same for many of the folks that we collaborated with on the policy side of the organization. What I'm saying is that I'll be looking for a fairly small handful of folks I know directly. Which puts me in the peculiar position of re-networking or networking anew in an organization I knew and contributed to intimately for a decade. It's a feeling I'm reckoning with as I reconnect to it through this award, in an advisory role for this Scicomm Fellowship program that ESA just launched, and through nascent collaboration that may happen with the member professional development arm of the organization.
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